Leading Christian religious leaders were sent advance copies of the film. Auxiliary Bishop Rutilio Del Riego of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino saw it at a January retreat of Southern California bishops.

Del Riego said the film is both respectful of Jesus and has the potential to reach a large audience. "The broader the appeal of any piece of entertainment that has an opportunity to evangelize people, the better," he said.

Churches across the country have received "Son of God" promotional materials, including links to a 22-minute video and e-mails with suggested Facebook, Twitter and Instagram postings about the film.

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, bought tickets for Spanish-language screenings at 10 California cinemas, including Riverside's AMC Tyler Galleria 16, said Santiago Pozo, founder and CEO of Arenas Entertainment, which is spearheading Latino marketing for the film.

Arenas is working with about 1,000 priests and pastors around the country to promote the movie, he said.

"Son of God" is a rare wide-release movie that Christians can feel comfortable seeing, said Kasey Husen, a spokeswoman for Crossroads Christian Church in Corona, Calif., which received more than 100 free tickets from Compassion International.

"The films out there other than this don't lend themselves to what we believe as Christians and the way Jesus calls us to live," she said. "They're against that in a lot of ways. It's great to have a movie about Jesus that shows people who he is and his story and why we believe what we believe."